The Other Philip Morris

Yesterday’s New York Times announced that Philip Morris (code named Altria) was not just leaving the City of New York, but walking away from almost 7 million dollars a year of New York based arts support (see the article).

This is not a small change. Seven million dollars a year does not come easily anywhere, including the nation’s arts capital.

Having the same name as the company that has probably done more damage to more people than any other is odd currency to comment on all this. At the same time, for 32 years I have run arts organizations and have had to consider whether my namesake’s largesse was a good thing or a bad thing.

A number of years ago, in Buffalo and a few other cities, other namesakes came together and, in support of the American Cancer Society, started a campaign that basically said, “Philip Morris says cigarette smoking kills.” I knew then that the company would have to change its name, because it certainly couldn’t make all of us born to it change ours!

I almost signed up for that campaign. Having never been a smoker, though, the Philip Morrises who were dying of lung cancer were more potent community figures.

Then, I created the Lucille Ball/Desi Arnaz Museum in Jamestown, NY (Lucy’s hometown). The first three years of the I Love Lucy show in the early 50’s were sponsored by Philip Morris. Weird, huh? The sort of thing you probably couldn’t dream up. Think about the first phone call I made to Lucy’s daughter, Lucie Arnaz? “Hello, Philip Morris calling…….”

We opted early on not to seek the company Philip Morris’s support or endorsement. We worked with kids and could not confound the message of opportunity that our arts in education program presented with the addiction represented by the Marlboro Man.

That attitude has stuck with me. Any arts organization worth its salt must have an education agenda. The lemming like pull of any addiction through advertising is nearly the opposite of the creativity and “making” possibilities of the arts. We would teach kids to be literate about media and messaging. How then to be funded by the most manipulative media advertiser going?

But that is not how all arts folks or institutions felt. Seven million dollars can buy a lot, including silence. The Philip Morris people were very smart. They knew the language of the arts better than any other funder. They supported broadly appealing work, and they supported esoteric new work. They made it hard for arts supporters to be “potent community figures” like the dying Philip Morrises.

I picked my side, but it was fairly easy. I was not working in New York City and never really thought I had a chance for substantial support. Could I have been bought? I am not sure. I would like to think not, but people I admired were among those who said yes when Philip Morris came pro-offering support.

In some ways, I feel badly that these dollars are disappearing. Not for the arts institutions as much as the root reason for the change in focus. The Philip Morris is moving offshore where there are fewer rules and fewer people watching and many more folks to addict with impunity. Those folks don’t need to be bought off, so thats seven million a year more to the shareholder’s bottom line. At least in the United States there was some small public benefit from poisoning so many citizens.